These days GeoHot is working at Facebook and is an active member of Facebook-sponsored "Chronic Dev Team", which works to "free your iPad and iPhone". Travelling from home in Cali, GeoHot was cruising into Texas in the western-border town and census site of Sierra Blanca on his way to speak at the renowned entertainment and digital lifestyle festival South by Southwest, which is held every year in Austin, a city in central-Texas.

While the hot question on everyone's mind may be whether the famed hacker was "hot boxing", we may never know.

What is known is that the town's police, expecting the rush of festival participants driving in from California were screening all cars with drug sniffing dogs. The dogs apparently became extra excited at GeoHot's car, and sure enough he had some of "the chronic" in his car -- enough to reportedly earn him a felony possession charge.

Taken downtown, he was booked at the station (likely he did not get the opportunity to test his IRL jailbreaking skills), and then released on $1,500 USD bond.

But GeoHot might be in good shape -- apparently the officer goofed. He had approximately 1/4 oz. of marijuana and chocolate edibles equivalent to less than 1/8 oz. However, the officers weighed the chocolate as if it was pure marijuana, hence how he received the felony possession. This led the officers to then estimate the value of GeoHot's "special" chunky chocolate truffle at $800 USD, rather than the $15 USD he reportedly paid for it.

Note:As a reader pointed out, nonsensical as it may be, this is actually how the Texas penal code works -- anything with a drug in it, is counted as a drug when waying for determination of a felony. GeoHot is only fortunate he didn't have a couple more chocolates or he might be looking at a 3rd degree felony and some serious prison time. (The threshold for a 3rd degree felony is 1 oz.)

America is a rather funny nation where both of its last two presidents openly admitted to smoking marijuana, yet it remains an imprisonable felony in many regions to possess the potent plant. While peer-reviewed studies published in medicine's most prestigious journals found marijuana to be less harmful than alcohol and tobacco, it remains illegal in America. In fact marijuana has been found to have mild beneficial effects.

quote: and did you miss the part where he has a medical marijuana id card? Would you tell a cancer patient to leave thier perc's at home and say tough it out dude..

Yeah.. 22.. medical marijuana ID card.. poor old man, I bet his lower back pain kills him! And the arthritis! Oh, the joints!

I think the stuff should be legalized, taxed and regulated like anything else. That a probably perfectly healthy 22 year old gets a bogus rx for something that is supposed to be reserved for the sick bugs me 100x more then his actual possession of it, no different then 'pill mill' doctors.